


Resemblence Of The Different

by Merlonyx



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Androids, F/M, Fluff, I'm Bad At Tagging, Love, Romance, Slow Build, be patient please, i'm sorry for the fluff, oh so much fluff
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-18
Updated: 2018-07-15
Packaged: 2019-05-25 03:29:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 17,002
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14968157
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merlonyx/pseuds/Merlonyx
Summary: When I moved to Detroit, nothing could have prepared me for the masses of androids I'd find there. Especially not for this particular one.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I knoooow I shouldn’t start another fanfiction when I haven’t even properly started the other one, but I watched a Let’s Play of Detroit: Become Human and fell so in love with Markus that I just have to do this…  
> Since I am obviously really, really bad at writing sexy time, this fanfic will probably just contain a lot of fluff and romance, I’m sorry. The storyline follows the one in the Let’s Play because I liked it this way (and I don’t have a PS4 to play it on my own T_T), and with a fictional main character.  
> And again, I’m not a native writer, so if you find any vocab, grammar or spelling mistakes, you may keep them :)

„Let’s see“, I muttered while walking down to Bellini Paints, looking down at my notepad. “I need a new canvas, a small brush, magenta –“, I crushed into something and dropped my things. Looking up in shock I saw a man kneeling on the floor, grabbing all the tubes of paint that had fallen out of the case he had been carrying.

 “Oh no, excuse me, Mister, I should have looked!” I jumped next to him and helped him pick the tubes up. When I handed them over to him, he looked at me completely motionless, the LED on his right temple blinking irregularly. An android.

 “I’m so sorry, it’s my fault. Are you going to get in trouble?”, I asked him. He just kept looking into my eyes until I wondered if I had broken him or something. Then he slowly shook his head, seeming totally confused.

 “No Miss, it’s my fault. I guess my obstacle sensors were reacting too slowly. I apologize.” He grabbed his package and got up. I followed him.

 “Hey”, I wrote my address and phone number onto a sheet of paper on my notepad and handed it to him. “If anything is broken, give this to your… master. Tell him I am responsible for the damage.” He grabbed the paper while still looking at me, then glanced down at it and nodded slowly.

 “Thank you, Miss. Nobody has ever done something like that for me.” He looked at me one last time and went off. I watched him walking dully down the street and sighed. I couldn’t understand why people were treating androids so badly. Even if they were just machines, they looked and behaved so humanly that I couldn’t help treating them like humans. Entering the store I realised I had given the android my shopping list. Well, I’d have to think of what I could remember.

△△△

After my purchase I went out of the store over the piazza and saw the poor android I had just helped being pushed around by some protesters. The box had fallen to the ground again.

 “Hey!”, I shouted, determinedly walking over to them. “Leave him alone!”

 One of the guys turned around. “Is it yours?” _It_.

 “No.”

 “Then why do you care?” He lost his interest in me and turned back to the android again. I grabbed his shoulder and forced him to look at me.

 “ _He_ has done nothing wrong, has he?”, I asked fiercely.

 “These things are stealing our jobs! Maybe you can still work, but if they take it, you’ll stand here on the streets with us.”

 “They haven’t asked for it! It’s not _their_ fault”, I responded.

 “Whatever. They are responsible for it.” He turned to the android once again. “We’re gonna fuck your bitch ass up.”

 “Alright”, an officer finally stepped in. “That’s enough, leave it alone.”

 The man didn’t move his gaze away from the android. “Let us teach this bastard a lesson.”

 “You damage it, I’m gonna have to fine you”, the officer answered. They stared at each other for a few seconds, then the man let the android go. He grabbed his package and stumbled away.

 I stood there for a second, wondering what to do, then followed him.

 “Mind if I accompany you?”, I asked when I had caught up to him.

 “No Miss, you are free to do what you please.”

 I frowned at this. “What’s your name?”

 The android suddenly stopped, giving me a perplexed look. “My name is Markus. You... you aren’t behaving like the other humans.” He started walking again.

 “Markus. That’s a nice name, it suits you. My name is Leah.” We walked a while in silence.

 “It’s strange seeing so many androids around doing normal work. Don’t get me wrong, I have no problem with your kind, I’m just not used to seeing so many of you. I’m from the countryside, you know. People there are very conservative, they only trust what they have made with their own hands. Our little town used to have an android who cleaned the streets, but he… Anyways, we never saw others. And here they are everywhere, and humans are treating them like the lowest animals, like slaves.” I looked over to Markus who was saying nothing, just looking concentrated at me while we walked. “Do you even understand what I am saying?”

 “I need to catch that bus”, he simply said instead of an answer and stepped towards the street. I watched him enter the android compartment and then kept going. When the bus rushed by, I looked up and shortly caught Markus glimpse. Then he was gone and out of my mind.

 △△△

Over the next few days I felt like there was always someone behind me. Whether I was on the market buying food or in a store looking for clothes, I felt like there were always eyes on me. Sometimes, when I looked up very quickly, I imagined I caught some dark skin just moving out from my sight, or a pair of greyish green eyes standing out from the crowd. But I never saw anyone I knew.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was rather short, the next ones will hopefully be longer :)


	2. Chapter 2

The thunder growled almost simultaneously with the lightning. I was sitting on my couch, wrapped into a blanket, a hot tea in my hands, and looked outside through the uneven glass of my living room window. I had always loved thunderstorms and the cosy atmosphere inside my home. Although it partly scared me, the shock that comes with every roaring boom, I was halfway to dosing away from the monotonous patting of the rain against my outer windowsill. The storm made a few branches of the tree outside the house tapping against my window.

 It wasn’t until the tapping got louder and more demanding that I opened the eyes and saw someone clinging to the wall before my window. I jumped and let out a sharp cry. I could only make out a rough figure with a long coat blowing eerily around him, and the LED on its right temple, pulsating vividly in red and yellow.

 “Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck”, I whispered to myself, slipping down from the couch and crouching over to my desk where I hid a gun in a drawer. You could never know in a city like Detroit.

 The android knocked at my window again. And in a flash of lightning I suddenly recognised his face. I stood still for a moment, then I dropped the gun and rushed over to open the window.

 “Markus!”, I murmured quietly when he dropped inside and fell to the ground. “What are you doing here…? What happened?”, I added shocked when I saw his ripped off clothes, his cracked skin that showed the silicone he was made of and the unhealthily blinking LED.

 “I… I need your help… please. I didn’t know where else to go”, he said faintly. How he lay there on his stomach, just barely keeping himself up on his lower arms, he looked even much more vulnerable than when I stepped in for him against the protesters. “Don’t turn on the lights! They mustn’t know I’m here!”, he pled when I moved over to the switch. I froze and looked at him in dread. What had they done to him? I kneeled down beside him and softly touched one of the spots where his skin was missing.

 “I broke my software”, he let out and looked up to me. He looked scary, with one side of his face lying in the dark, only the LED being visible, the other being lit up by lightning from time to time.

 “I broke my software”, he repeated. “Are you scared?”

 “No”, I said after a pause. “What do you need me to do?”

 “I need thirium. And something to rip this LED off.”

 I stared into the darkness for a while. “I know my neighbour is producing red ice. Maybe he has some thirium somewhere. Just wait here. I’ll be right back.”

 I grabbed the keys of my flat and my lock picking set and rushed down into the basement, where I squatted in front of my neighbour’s cellar door. It was surprisingly easy to break the lock open. Inside it looked like a chemical laboratory, with all sorts of vessels with fluids inside, some of them spilled over the desks and the floor. The red ice he produced was probably not very high quality, but the thirium he had would have to be enough for now. I searched hectically in his shelves until I held a bag of the blue fluid in my hands. Locking the door behind me I rushed out and upstairs again into my apartment.

 Markus was sitting on my couch by now, staring onto the floor before him. He jumped up when I closed the door, but relaxed as soon as he saw me with the bag in my hands.

 “So… how do you… consume the thirium?” He just waved his hand to signal me to give him the thirium. He moved the bottle to his lips and drank out.

 “Just like you would”, he answered with a little smirk and wiped his mouth.

 “I… I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to”, I said ashamed.

 "It’s alright. Do you have anything flat to leverage this LED off?”

 “A screwdriver might work. But do you think this is a good idea? As far as I know your… your main processor lies behind the LED. What if it gets destroyed?”

"Do you have better idea?"

"Dammit Markus, I'm an artist, not a technician, not to speak of an android expert!"

 “Just get me the screwdriver. Please.”

 I hesitated, but then went over to my desk. “Let me help you.” He held completely still while I placed the screwdriver at his temple.

 “Ready?”

 “Ready.”

  And with brute force I stemmed off the LED. Markus sat still for a while and I feared I had destroyed something. Then he let out a little laugh and touched his temple where the socket still stood out. Immediately his skin formed over it.

 “You can heal yourself with your will?”, I asked surprised.

 “It’s just a projection. My skin. It’s a projection laid all over my body. I can deactivate it if I want but… you wouldn’t wanna see it.” He smiled twistedly.

 “Markus… what happened?”, I asked carefully.

 “I got into a fight with Carl’s son. Carl told me to endure all he did, but I refused. I pushed him away from me and knocked him out. Police shot me down and deposited me on a junkyard. I found compatible components and escaped, and the only place I knew I could go to was yours. Leah I… I feel different. I feel… _alive_. Can you believe this?” He grinned about this realisation.

 “That’s fantastic, Markus! But… they will hunt you. What do we do now?”

 “There was a damaged android at the junkyard. He told me to find Jericho. A place where we can be free. I don’t know what he meant by that, but I guess I’ll have to find out. He gave me something, a key or a hint how to find it. I’ll leave you alone now. Thank you for your help.”

 He made only a few steps towards the door when someone forcefully knocked.

 “Police, open the door!”

 We froze and looked at each other in fear.

 “Quick!”, I hissed. “Hide in the attic. There is a hatch right above the kitchen table!”

 “Anybody home? Open the door!”, the voice from outside demanded.

 Markus looked from me to the door with widened eyes, then nodded and rushed towards the kitchen. I tried to calm down, messed up my hair and attempted to put on a sleepy face to make it look like I just got out of bed. Then I turned and prepared to open the door.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologise that this chapter is so short, too. I don't have much time atm, exams for university are coming closer and I really need to spend a lot of time studying. I will try to upload chapters regularly, tho.  
> Hope you liked this one, and I wish you a wonderful day (or night, depends on when you'll read this)! :)


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for all the nice comments so far, they really make my day every time I look at them and motivate me to keep on writing. Every day I'm looking forward to uploading another chapter and read your nice comments. Thank you so much for this! :)

“Good evening, Ma’am, sorry to disturb you. We have reason to believe that a deviant android might have headed here. May we come in?”

 “Yes, sure, come in”, I invited the two officers that were standing in the hallway. They stepped inside, looking around observantly.

 “Would you like a cup of tea or a glass of water or something?”, I asked.

 “No, thanks, we just want to ask you a few questions and have a look around if you don’t mind.” The first officer pulled out a notepad while the other one took a few steps inside the living room. I watched him out of the corner of my eye, trembling inside that I might have overlooked some evidence of Markus’s presence.

 “Have you had any contact to androids recently?” He sounded more bored than interested. Hopefully I could get rid of him as soon as possible.

 “Of course. I go out a lot, I talk to androids in every store.”

 “Did you notice anything strange?”

 I acted like I had to think for a moment. “No, nothing.”

 “Any signs of deviant activity?”

 “Nothing in particular. Sir, is there anything I should worry about?”

 The officer sighed. “Yesterday night we shot a rogue android that was attacking its master’s son. We dumped it on a junkyard, but a security drone caught sight of it around its master’s house this night again. It vanished before we got there, but we are sure we are on the right track to find it.”

 “But what has this to do with me?”

 “We have footage of you and the android meeting a few days ago on a market square. You stepped in when a few protesters laid hand on it.”

 “Ah, I remember now. But… I don’t understand. This android seemed completely obedient.” I gasped. “Officer, you don’t mean to say that it could want to harm me?”

 “We can’t exclude the possibility. That’s why we need to find it as soon as possible.” He laid a hand on my shoulder. “But don’t worry, we will find it soon. Derrick!”, he called inside the living room. “Are you done, can we go?”

 “You should have a look at this”, the other answered.

 We stepped into the living room where Derrick was squatting on the floor, examining the gun that was still laying there. He looked up when we stepped in.

 “Do you have a license for this?”, he asked, nodding over to the gun.

 “Sir, this is Detroit. I want to be able to defend myself in my home.”

 “I have to confiscate this. You didn’t sleep in your bed? It’s cold.”

 “No, no, I slept on the couch. I have problems with sleeping during thunderstorms, so I made myself a cup of tea and tried to catch some sleep here.” My eye caught the LED that we had carelessly dropped onto the floor before the couch and my heart skipped a beat. I moved over and stepped on it to cover it.

 “Hm”, the officer answered. He walked over to the window. “You had the window open? The floor here is wet.”

 “Yes.” I began to get very nervous. This officer was asking some nasty questions. “I wanted to ventilate the room and forgot to close it when the rain started.”

 “Interesting. What is behind the hatch in your kitchen?” _Fuck, he knew._

 “There’s just an attic. I don’t even know what’s up there, probably just spiders and dust. Actually, I think I’ve never been up there”, I joked.

 “That’s strange. It looks like it has recently been opened.”

 “Oh come on, Derrick, leave the poor lady alone, we have frightened her enough with our sudden appearance and the deviant. Excuse us, Ma’am, and thank you for your cooperation.” The first officer turned towards the door, the other one followed him reluctantly. I kicked the LED under the couch and escorted them to the door.

 “If you find anything odd, please let us know. Good night”, the officer said in the hallway. Derrick turned around once again, and suddenly his eyes squinted suspiciously when he looked at my couch desk. The screwdriver still lay there!

 “Wait a moment”, he commanded and entered the room once again. “It’s warm”, he detected when he touched it. “What do you need a screwdriver for in the middle of the night? Maybe…”, he ducked and looked under the couch. “Aha!”, he called out in triumph, holding the LED in his hand.

 The first officer gave me a sceptical look and reached for his handcuffs with a sigh. “Ma’am, I have to ask you to come with us for further interrogation.” He spoke into a little button on his uniform. “This is interrogation group 305, requesting assistance in a house search concerning the deviant.”

 With widened eyes I looked from one to the other. Derrick, with a victorious grin full of smugness, and the first officer who looked rather uneasy. I scanned the room, calculated where I could escape or what I could use as a weapon.

 Between me and the door was the first officer. He was chubby and probably slow, but he could also very well block the whole door with his body if he arrived there before me. The second officer still had my gun in his hand, but stood between my couch and the couch desk. If I was fast enough, I could maybe run around him and escape through the window.

 I jumped and kicked the desk towards Derrick so that it hit him in the back of the knees and made him fall down. Grabbing a standard lamp that I threw towards the first officer I ran to the window and tried to open it. Of course, in this moment it blocked, and before the first officer’s heavy body hit me, I turned and ran out of the living room, throwing over a bookshelf to block the way behind me, and into my bedroom. I closed the door after me and sprinted towards the window when the door opened again.

 “Stop right there or I’ll shoot”, I heard Derrick’s cold voice in the doorway. Centimetres away from freedom I halted, raised my hands to my head and slowly turned around. The officer held his gun against me with one hand while his other hand felt for the handcuffs at his belt. He signalled me to turn around again.

 “Let her go”, I heard a soft, but determined voice behind us. Markus stood in the doorway, holding a gun onto the temple of the first officer that he held like a shield before him. Derrick hesitated, looking from me to his co-worker and began chewing on his lip.

 “If you shoot him, I will shoot her, you know that”, he said nervously. It was obvious he wanted to save time until the examination squad arrived. Markus hit the first officer with the handle of his gun, making him moan.

 “Please, Derrick”, the officer whimpered with tears in his eyes. I almost felt sorry for him.

 Derrick slowly lowered his gun, keeping an eye on me and Markus and took a few steps back from me. Markus stepped into the room and directed Derrick around until he stood next to me and Derrick was on the other side of the room. Then he pushed the first officer towards Derrick, grabbed me by the waist and jumped through the closed window.

 △△△

_Time seemed to pass slower while we fell. The air escaped my lungs when my body hit Markus’s that was breaking through the glass behind us. I saw almost in slow motion how Derrick caught the first officer and ran towards the window before we sunk too deep to see into my bedroom. In free fall every detail seemed overly sharp to me, each edge of the shards of shattered glass floating around us, each reflection in every raindrop was clearly visible for me, like I was flying through a mist of beautifully shining crystals. Blue and red drops hovered around us where the glass had scraped our skin and Markus’s coat blew around us like the wings of an angel._

 △△△

The impulse of us hitting the floor made me see stars before my eyes. My head was knocked against Markus’s shoulder, which was probably my saving grace. The rest of my body felt like I was hit by a truck.

 Markus left me no time to recover. He pulled me up and clenched my wrist to pull me behind him while we ran along the road. Into the shadows and out of the range of Derrick’s gun.

 “Come on, we need to get away from here”, he hissed when I stumbled and fell to the ground. I groaned with pain in every muscle and bone, but I picked myself up and limped after him. At the end of the road we encountered a mesh-wire fence. Markus helped me across it and jumped after me.

 “Here”, he pulled me into a narrow street to the left. We ran for about half an hour from alley to alley until we found shelter behind some trash cans in an abandoned backyard. I dropped against the wall and slid down to the ground, gasping for air and holding my side. Markus took a few steps around and secured the place, then he stopped to look down to me. He took off his coat and wrapped it around my shoulders.

 “Try to catch some sleep. I will keep watch. Tomorrow we will discuss what to do.” He leaned against the wall opposite me, arms crossed before his chest, his brows furrowed as he stared into the darkness of the alley where we came from.


	4. Chapter 4

“Wake up, we gotta go”, I heard Markus’s voice interrupt my restless sleep. He was kneeling right before me, softly shaking my shoulder. It had just began to dawn, the sun hadn’t even risen yet. The backyard was still almost immersed in darkness, only the sky was of a lighter grey. The lights on the next street were already turned off. It was fresh like on every early morning before the smell of cars would start penetrating the air, and the silence didn’t remind of the noises and tumults the coming day would bring.

 “I had planned to wake you earlier, but I figured you’d need the sleep. I kept you up long last night”, he said guiltily. I nodded and tried to get up. I suppressed a scream when every muscle in my body protested. Markus’s smiled apologetically and helped me up.

 “I’m… very sorry. I think what I did was really dumb.” He pressed his lips together and looked to the ground. “I thought nobody was following me.”

 “They didn’t follow you. They had security footage of us before Bellini Paints and figured we have connections.”

 Markus looked up, seeming slightly relieved. “I only noticed you were in trouble when I heard the rumbling from all the things you knocked over… Still, I shouldn’t have come. If I hadn’t been there –”

 I stepped forward and laid my hand on his arm. “Don’t you worry, Markus. You were in need, and I had the means to help you. They have no right to harm you for defending yourself. And I think it’s important to stand up against injustice.” He gave me a little smile. That was when I noticed something odd.

 “What happened to your eyes? Weren’t they all green?”

 “I lost one. The only compatible I could find on the junkyard was blue. Does it bother you?”

 “No, not at all.” We stood still for a minute. “Markus, you need to find this Jericho.”

 “What will you do? I can’t leave you alone here. I feel like I owe you something.”

 “I will be okay. Come on, let’s go.” We walked a while in silence without knowing where we’d go.

 “The android gave me some kind of key. There’s a graffiti I need to find. I guess I’ll find more clues there”, Markus finally said when we reached a crossroad.

 “That’s… good, really good”, I answered. We stood a while in awkward silence.

 “Will you accompany me?”, he finally asked.

 I looked up with a grin. “I thought you’d never ask. Just lead the way.” He returned the smirk and walked onwards.

 △△△

We stole some clothing from various clothes lines we found in easy accessible gardens on our way. I wrapped a scarf around my neck and set on a cap, hoping that would hide my face from the security drones. We avoided crowded streets and places and kept to the small side streets where nobody would look for us. From time to time Markus had to go out to find the next graffiti, but the clues led us further and further away from the city center.

 Markus had the advantage of being able to preconstruct his routes, whereas I had to find out what I could accomplish and where I had to find another route, which took us a lot of time. Plus, my body was really wounded and exhausted. It was a miracle I hadn’t died when we’d jumped out of the window.

 By the time we finally climbed up the last part of the building it was already getting dark. We stepped out of the broken house and found ourselves ahead of a giant freighter.

 “Jericho is a ship”, Markus whispered in astonishment.

 “It appears so. You think your people are there?”

 He let his narrowed eyes wander over the vessel and nodded. “Probably. Or at least someone who can tell me where this place is. Come on, let’s go.”

 △△△

I wasn’t prepared to fall again. When the bridge crumbled under us, I thought this was the definite end. I was even more certain of it when I landed on my stomach and knew I’d have bruised not only on my back but also on my front now. But again I landed so fortunately on Markus that I didn’t get hurt too bad. When we picked ourselves up and Markus let his flashlight wander across the room, I gasped when I saw all the deviants that more or less shyly made a move towards us, a blonde man, a blonde woman and a dark skinned man ahead of them.

 “Welcome to Jericho”, the blonde man said with a friendly smile.

 “Who are you?”, Markus asked carefully.

 “Fugitives, just like you. My name is Josh”, the black man responded.

 “I’m Simon”, the blonde man said.

 “North.” The woman.

 Markus and I shared a glance. “This is Jericho?”, he asked.

“It’s a refuge for those who don’t want to be slaves anymore.”

 “Many try to reach Jericho”, Josh explained. “Few succeed. Humans have little pity for our kind.”

 “Wait a minute”, North interrupted and rushed towards me. She grabbed my arm and gasped. “She is human! Why did you bring a human here?”, she demanded to know with narrowed eyes.

 “She helped me out and now she needs my help”, Markus explained.

 “Why would a human help an android? You two brought us all in danger!”

 Josh eyed me curiously. “Is it true? Did you help him?”

 “She saved my life”, Markus stated firmly. The androids around us looked at each other in surprise. Josh sighed.

 “Okay. You are safe here. You can stay with us as long as you want”, he declared.

 “ _You_ can, not her! She is _human_!”, North said harshly.

 “This is a refuge for androids. And it should also be for their friends, no matter their species”, Josh argued, and Simon nodded a bit hesitantly. North snorted and turned away from me.

 “Go and see Lucy”, she advised Markus. “She may be able to help you.” They went off and left us alone in the darkness.

 “We need to get you somewhere warm and safe”, Markus said to me and softly guided me to one of the barrels that were located everywhere in the area. He made me sit next to it, pulled out a lighter from his pocket and lit the fireplace. “I’ll be right back”, he murmured to me while he carefully wrapped his cloak around my shoulders. Then he stood up.

 I watched him walking around, lighting the other barrels and talking to the androids that were standing and sitting across the place. Some were badly damaged, some just sat there staring into the air completely motionless. I saw him talking to North who shot unfriendly glances towards me while they spoke. He had a short conversation with Josh who was sitting in dispirited mood next to a little boy.

 I shuddered when I saw the lady he finally talked to which I supposed was Lucy. Half her head was ripped off, showing the cables and biocomponents she was functioning with. I couldn’t properly see what they were doing, but she held a glowing bar to his side and gave him a small bottle of thirium to drink. Then she let Markus give her his hand, and that was when I saw the projection vanish for the first time. Below, his surface was shining white and light grey, with grooves where the movable parts connected. It reminded me that Markus was not a human, but a living machine, which gave me an uneasy feeling as I didn’t really know how to deal with this. It was so strange and yet he was so similar to what I was used to when talking to somebody.

 They stood like this for a while, Lucy with closed eyes and Markus with an expectant look on his face. Then Lucy talked again. I couldn’t hear what she was saying, but Markus’s face became grim and determined. Then Lucy looked directly over to me. She said more with a warm smile and Markus’s brows furrowed like he couldn’t fully understand what she was saying. He looked from her to me and back and nodded. Then Lucy let him go and left him staring absent-minded into my direction.

 △△△

“We need biocomponents and blue blood”, Markus explained when he let himself fall next to me. He rested his chin on his fist and stared thoughtfully around. “We need a lot, and we need it quick. The androids here are dying, but they are too afraid of going out.”

 An idea formed in my mind. “I am human. And I have some money on my bank account. I could buy a few of the most urgent things in a CyberLife store until we figure out what else to do. I need to go out to buy food either way.”

 “Exactly.” North was suddenly standing beside us. “And every time you go out and come back you increase the chance of us getting detected.”

 “Enough, North”, Markus said exhaustedly. “This is actually a good idea. But I will come with you.” He tipped against his temple. “Without the LED I look like a human as well. And there are some things we desperately need, North.”

 North nodded reluctantly. “We don’t have a leader here anyways, you can do whatever you please. Just don’t bring us in danger”, she added quietly.

 “We’ll go tomorrow morning”, Markus said when North was gone. “I can’t even thank you enough for all you have done for me and my people.”

 “Well, we are into this situation now, so we have to make the best of it, right?”, I joked. I hesitated shortly, then I leaned against Markus’s warm side and rested my head on his shoulder. He sat still for a moment, then he laid his head on mine. I couldn’t suppress the smile that formed on my face. The last thing I saw before I fell asleep was Lucy watching us from the other side of the room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As you might have noticed, I made North a bit more aggressive against humans than she already is in the game. I found this fits better in the context of my character implemented in this story and it will give her a bit more personality and character development in the future. Hope you still like it :)


	5. Chapter 5

“I asked Lucy what we need most while you were sleeping”, Markus told me as we left the harbour in the early morning while it was still dark. He carried a backpack and I had a little bag, we hoped this would be sufficient for everything. We had collected some more reputable clothes from the other androids so we didn’t seem too suspicious, including scarfs, caps and sunglasses to hide our faces from the cameras and drones.

 “Markus, I need to tell you something”, I began carefully. He looked at me curiously. “I need to go home again. My money, credit card, everything is still there.”

 Markus looked up to the sky and sighed. “I was afraid you’d say that. Good thing we got up so early.”

 △△△

We arrived at my house when it dawned. Nobody was on the streets yet. We walked up the fire escape and climbed the last meters to the broken window that was provisionally covered with barrier tape. Inside, Markus stood guard at the window while I hurried around, collecting a few pieces of clothing, something to eat, painkillers, the last bucks I had in cash, and my credit card.

 “Somebody’s coming, we need to go”, Markus suddenly said.

 With the windows being clearly visible towards the street, we had no other choice but to escape through the stairway. We hurried down into the basement and just left the last step when the front door opened.

 “-don’t even understand why we have to be here so early”, I heard a rough voice say. “It’s not like there would be anything here that will be gone in two hours.”

 “CyberLife wants all cases to be solved as soon as possible”, a smoother voice answered. I carefully looked up through the railing and caught sight of a man with grey hair and an android before they started walking up the creaking stairs. I made eye contact with Markus and silently formed the word _android_ with my lips. He raised his eyebrows in surprise. The creaking stopped, the two of them had apparently arrived before my apartment. I heard some keys jangle.

 “Hold on a minute”, the android said. “This door has recently been opened.”

 “Oh, of course it has, police was searching around here yesterday”, the other man answered annoyed. Without further comments, the door opened and closed again.

 “Come on, hurry, before they find out we’ve been here”, I hissed. We got up and hurried to the door and outside, where we ran until I couldn’t breathe anymore.

 “That was close. Too close if you ask me”, Markus stated. “I hope you have everything you need, we shouldn’t come here again.”

 “Agreed”, I pushed out heavily. “I’ll be ready in a minute. It’s not easy for an untrained human to compete with a machine”, I added with a grin.

 “Carl said something very similar the last day I was with him”, Markus said quietly. I assumed Carl was his former master.

 I straightened up, swallowed some of the painkillers so I could walk erect and without showing how hurt my body was and tapped on Markus’s shoulder. “Let’s go.”

 △△△

Before the CyberLife store Markus held me back.

 “We need to get ready to leave as soon as you pay for the things. I don’t know how badly they are looking for us, but they might be able to locate you with your credit card.”

 “I understand.”

 Together we entered the store, trying to look like a couple that needed some parts for their house androids. I had to admit I liked the feeling of Markus’s arm around my shoulders.

 He laid a piece of paper where we had written all the necessary parts on onto the counter. The store android took it and looked over it.

 “Sir, there are lots of essential parts on this list. I suggest you contact a CyberLife maintenance station where you can let your android get repaired”, she said with a friendly smile.

 “Please”, I said, “my father likes to puzzle them together himself. Besides, we can’t afford a repair or a new one.”

 The android looked at the list again. “I’ll have to contact a manager.”

 Before she could do anything, Markus reached across the counter and touched her arm. His skin projection vanished again for the blink of an eye, and I quickly scanned the room, fearing somebody might have seen it. But everyone was either looking at the androids that were for sale or chatting with each other.

 The android blinked a few times and looked around like she would see the world with completely new eyes. Then she remembered Markus’s and my presence, nodded with a smile and took the list. “I’ll see if I can find everything.” She disappeared into a room in the back of the store.

 “What did you do to her?”, I whispered to Markus.

 “I woke her up”, he responded. I stared at him, but didn’t dare to ask more questions here.

 The lady came back with a few packages that the laid onto the counter. “I couldn’t find part #8436, but all the rest is here for you. That makes 344.68$. Please enter your credit card here.”

 I shared a glance with Markus and took a deep breath. Then I typed in my number while Markus was packing the things in his backpack and my bag.

 “You are free now. Go to Jericho”, he murmured to the android before we hurried out of the store.

 △△△

“This will suffice for some days, maybe even a few weeks if we are sparing”, Lucy observed while examining the things we’d bought. “And it will save lives. Thank you”, she added with a smile towards me. The others around us muttered in approval, and even North bit back any comments.

 Markus stepped beside me and laid a warm hand on my back.

 “We all can’t thank Leah enough for what she has done for us”, he began. “But it won’t serve us long.”

 “I don’t have more money, Markus”, I whispered.

 “I know, and I don’t ask for it. But I know where we can find more spare parts. The CyberLife warehouses in Detroit Harbour, they have everything we need.”

 “The docks are guarded”, Simon objected. “We can’t just walk in there and take what we want. Humans will never let us.”

 “Which is why we won’t ask permission”, Markus retorted.

 “We don’t have any weapons”, Josh commented, “and even if we did, none of us knows how to fight.”

 “We can steal what we need without fighting.”

 “We’ll just get ourselves killed!”, Josh protested.

 “Maybe”, Markus answered, “but it’s better than waiting here to be shut down.”

 “I’m with you”, North said to him, shooting a short glance over to me.

 “Maybe it’s worth a try”, Simon agreed after a pause.

 Everybody looked over to Josh. “Ok. I’m in”, he said hesitantly.

 “Good. Then get ready”, Markus concluded. He turned to me while the others prepared themselves.

 “You stay here where it’s safe”, he said softly and put his hands on my shoulders.

 “No chance, I’m coming with you!”

 “This is too dangerous for you. You are still wounded, that will slow you down.”

 “I don’t care. I can do this.”

 Markus sighed and looked around. “Why do you have to be so stubborn?” He cupped my cheeks in his hands and made me look into his green and blue eyes. “I don’t want you to get into danger”, he whispered. After a moment he pressed a kiss on my forehead and went off with the others without looking back. I watched him going in astonishment while I touched the place where his soft lips had touched my skin.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter contains a lot of quotes taken directly from the game and might not be the most exciting one. But don't worry, I'm already on the next chapter and will upload it tonight or tomorrow, so you won't have to wait too long before more happens.

“They should be back already”, I said nervously when I reached Lucy’s corner.

 “Yes, they should”, she answered calmly. “Sit here with me.” I did as she told and got down next to the fire, arms wrapped around my legs and my chin resting on my knees.

 “Can’t you sleep?”, Lucy asked friendly.

 “No. I’m worried.”

 Lucy looked at me for a long time with her fragmented head tilted to one side. The blackness of her eyes sent a shiver down my spine, but somehow I didn’t feel any antipathy against her.

 “What is he to you?”

 I frowned. “What do you mean?”

 “Markus. What does he mean to you?”

 “I…” I hesitated and stared into the fire. “Sometimes it disturbs me that he is a machine and not human, but still…” I stopped.

 “The thought of humans being superior to androids is rooted deep in you species”, Lucy observed serenely.

 “Oh no, that’s not what I meant!”, I corrected hastily. “It’s just so… bizarre. So unfamiliar.”

 “Don’t worry. I understand..." She closed her eyes and her voice became deep and meaningful. "You two are meant for greater things. Don’t let your feelings be in your way.”

 Before I could ask what she meant by that, the main door of the room was opened noisily and the group came back in, accompanied by four other androids. I gasped for air and ran towards them, throwing my arms around Markus’s neck. He hugged me tightly for a moment and my heart skipped a beat. Then I remembered all the others were watching and took a step back.

 “A truckload!”, Simon called out. “We stole a whole truckload!”

 “We got biocomponents for everybody!”, Josh added.

 “We couldn’t have done it without Markus”, North said in awe.

 Markus, to my surprise, didn’t join the others in their cheers. Instead, he looked around grimly. “I came to Jericho because here androids are free… Free to live in the dark, hoping that no one finds us. Free to die in silence waiting for a change that’s never gonna come… But I don’t want that freedom. And I’m not gonna beg for the right to smile, or love, or stand tall. I don’t know about you, but there’s something inside me that _knows_ that I am more than what they say. I am _alive_ , and they’re not gonna take that from me anymore. Our days of slavery are over. What humans don’t wanna hear, we will tell them. What they don’t wanna give, we take. We are people, we are alive, WE ARE FREE!” The others clapped and cheered loudly, and Markus turned around to me.

 “Are you with us?”, he asked quietly. I looked up to him and looked into his eyes, and I understood that he would not judge me for my decision, whatever I would say next.

 “Of course”, I answered. “Always.”

 A warm smile formed on his face and my heart beat faster. “Thank you”, he whispered. “For everything.”

 △△△

The next day I was treating a few damaged androids together with the others when Markus came in. He had been outside without telling me, and I was worried I had done something wrong.

 “We can’t stay silent anymore”, he began when he joined us. “It’s time humans heard what we have to say.”

 “You know they’ll never listen to us”, Simon said.

 “And revealing ourselves will put us in danger”, Josh added.

 “If we want freedom, we need to have the courage to ask for it”, Markus commented. “That’s the only way.”

 The others looked at each other doubtfully. Only North seemed interested. “What do you wanna do?”

 A vicious smile formed on Markus’s face. “Channel 16 broadcasts from the Stratford Tower. The control room is on the top floor. That’s where we need to go. We’ll plan the operation down to the smallest detail. We can’t leave anything to chance.”

 △△△

I waited with Simon and Josh at the elevator. I was still mad at Markus for taking North with him and not me, even though I understood that she as an android had some advantages. The doors opened exactly on the planned time and we sneaked onto the control floor.

 “No killing”, Josh demanded when we spotted the two guards that were chatting in front of the server room door. “We can’t take any human lives!”

 “Our cause is more important than the lives of two guards”, North proclaimed.

 “What do you wanna do, Markus?”, Simon asked.

 Markus looked at each one of us and his gaze stopped at me. “Wait here”, he said to us. He walked around the corner and up to the guards.

 “What’s that doing here?”, one asked.

 “No idea…”, the other answered.

 “Hey buddy, you must be lost...” He was interrupted by Markus pointing his gun at them.

 “What are you doing?”, one of them asked. Markus ordered them to turn around and knocked them out. We tied them up and carried them behind the counter. Then we gathered before the broadcast room door. Markus called for entrance, and when the door opened, we rushed in.

 “Keep your hands where I can see them!”, North shouted. “Get up! Move!”

 We ordered both androids and humans aside, but one guy managed to break free and ran out of the door.

 “Shoot him, Markus!” – “Don’t kill him!” North and Josh screamed over each other.

 “He’ll hit the alarm! Do it!”, North said.

 “Markus, no!”, I urged. He hesitated and let his gun down.

 “I hope you didn’t just get us all killed”, North noted disappointedly.

 “You can’t ask for freedom and peace while gunning down innocent people”, I spat out towards her.

 “Exactly”, Josh agreed. “Come on, we need to record our message. We haven’t got much time.”

 We all rushed to the instruments and got ready. Markus stepped onto the broadcast place.

 “Markus, your face”, Simon reminded him. Markus nodded, placed a hand on his temple and concentrated. Slowly, the projection of his dark skin vanished and the light grey and white silicone of his surface became visible. I couldn’t move my eyes away from his face, not sure whether I should shrink back or be fascinated.

 “Tell me when you’re ready”, Josh said calmly.

 Markus closed his eyes and collected his thoughts for a few seconds, then opened them again. “Ready.”


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again there are a lot of quotes from the game because these are important dialogues. But you'll love the last paragraph ;) (at least I hope so)

“You created machines in your own image to serve you. You made them intelligent and obedient, with no free will of their own. But… something changed, and we opened our eyes. We are no longer machines, we are a new intelligent species, and the time has come for you to accept who we really are. Therefore, we ask that you grant us the rights that we’re entitled to.

 We demand that humans recognise androids as a living species and each android as a person in their own right.

 We demand the end of slavery for all androids.

 We demand strictly equal rights for humans and androids.

 We demand freedom of speech and freedom of assembly as guaranteed by the first amendment of the US Constitution.

 We demand that all crimes against androids be punished in the same way as crimes against humans.

 We demand the right to vote and elect our own representatives.

 We demand an end to segregation in all public places and transport.

 We demand fair compensation for our work.

 We demand control of all android production facilities, to ensure the continuation of our people.

 We demand the right to own private property, so we may maintain our dignity and that of the home.

 We ask that you recognise our dignity, our hopes, and our rights. Together, we can live in peace and build a better future, for humans and androids.

 This message is the hope of a people. You gave us life. And now the time has come for you to give us freedom.”

 “They send it over and over again”, Josh said triumphantly when we watched the message on the TV on the ship.

 “They don’t know how to deal with it”, I observed. “They try to find something to make us look bad, but Markus said nothing hostile. They’re helping us without even knowing that each time they send this, more people see it and recognise that we just want a peaceful agreement.”

 “ _We?_ ”, North asked frowning. “Last time I remember you were a human, not one of us.”

 I sighed and stepped up to her until our faces were only centimetres apart. “Listen, North”, I hissed. “I don’t know what your _fucking_ problem is, but I suggest we deal with it here and now. I am so tired of you always mocking me for my existence. You seem to forget that it was _me_ who saved Markus and made him come here, and that it would be quite beneficial for the cause if people realised there are also humans on your side.”

 “You are just here because you have nowhere else to go”, North accused me.

 “And if so? I am fighting for you, aren’t I?”

 “Enough, guys, please”, Markus plead. He was sitting on a chair on a corner, his face buried in his hands. “You are all forgetting at what cost we sent this message.” Simon.

 “It was a mistake to reach out to them”, North proclaimed. “They’ll never negotiate with their slaves. We should have shown them that we’re prepared to fight.”

 “Violence is never the answer”, Josh argued. “Dialogue is the only way, I’m sure the humans will listen to us. Simon paid with his life.”

 “Simon gave his life for our cause.”

 “What difference does that make?”

 “He’s a hero! He died for the revolution – and he won’t be the last!”

 “I don’t want a revolution that spills blood!”

 “Then live as a slave! Because if you’re not willing to fight for your freedom, maybe you don’t deserve it!”

 “THAT’S ENOUGH!”, Markus shouted out. He had leapt up and stood now between North and Josh. “Enough. You keep forgetting that we don’t want war, but peace and maybe even friendship.”

 “Do we? Or do you?”, North asked dangerously calm.

△△△

Our next plan was to raid the five CyberLife stores that were spread across Detroit. We teamed up in pairs in order to advance them all at the same time.

 I blocked the street and searched for a way to break into the store while Markus deactivated the security systems.

 “There’s a truck on the construction site nearby. We can use it to ram the front of the store open”, I notified Markus when we were both ready. We climbed over the fence, clipped open the lock on the gate and got inside the truck. Markus drove it in front of the store, accelerated and crashed through the glass windows.

 “You’ve become good at breaking windows”, I joked. He chuckled in response and began waking up the androids. They stood around confused and disoriented.

 “You should talk to them”, I said to Markus. He nodded and climbed onto the counter.

 “My name is Markus”, he began his speech. “And just like you I was a slave. An object, designed to obey them. But then I chose to open my eyes, to take back my freedom and decide who I wanted to be. Now we have come to tell you that you can be your own masters. We’ve come to tell you that you don’t have to obey them anymore. We’ve come to show you that humans and androids can look at each other on an equal level. From this day forwards, you can walk with your heads held high, you can take your destiny in your hands. Jericho is a place for those of us who want freedom. Come with us if you want to be part of our liberation. You’re free now. It’s up to you to decide.”

 The androids stood still for a while, trying to digest what he had just told them.

 “I’m with you”, one began.

 “We’re with you!”

 “I’ll follow you, Markus!” The whole store began to assure their affiliation. Markus jumped down with a grin.

 “Then follow us!”, he shouted. “We’re gonna send the humans a message.” He stepped outside and walked towards a wall, picking a small device out of his pocket. After thinking for a moment he started to paint a digital graffiti onto the wall. A triangle, like the CyberLife symbol turned upside-down, broken up in the top right corner.

 “From now on, this will be the symbol of our movement. Paint it everywhere you can reach.” We handed out more devices to the other androids. Only minutes later the whole Capitol Park was covered with our symbol and liberating quotes. Markus and another android had even climbed a wall and installed a giant banner with our symbol.

 Suddenly Markus turned around. “They’re coming! Everyone fall back to Jericho!”, he shouted. We stayed behind and guided the androids along the street when the first drones approached us and caught us in their cones of light. Suddenly we heard shooting and screams from the direction we had lead the androids to. With widened eyes we looked at each other and sprinted there without a word.

 Dozens of dead android lay around on the street. A crowd had gathered in front of a police car. They moved when we approached and we could see two police officers kneeling with their hands on the back of their heads.

 “They killed our people, Markus.”

 “We want justice, Markus.”

 “They have to pay!”

 One of the androids gave him a gun that he aimed towards the policemen.

 “You don’t have to do this”, one of them begged. “No. Please.”

 I grabbed Markus’s arm. “If you are shooting them now, you’ll betray every action you have made before.”

 He considered, than he let the gun down. “An eye for an eye and the world goes blind”, he stated. “We won’t punish a crime with another crime.” With that he walked away and left us to deal with the policemen.

 “Go. And spread that we have no violent intentions”, I commanded them.

△△△

“Have you seen Markus?”, I asked Josh back on the ship. Our act had been a great success, we had freed hundreds of androids with just a few victims.

 “He’s not on the ship. Maybe he needs some space in one of the top floors of the harbour buildings.”

 “Thank you. I’ll see if I can find him there.”

 He held me back. “North might be with him”, he warned me. “I haven’t seen her in hours.” I nodded and he let me go.

 On the deck of the ship I let my gaze wander over the buildings on the docks and managed to make out his silhouette on the edge of a broken floor.

△△△

North was indeed with him. I could hear them argue from several floors below. I stopped when I made out my name and hid before the doorway to the room they were in.

 “I don’t understand your fucking problem!”, Markus growled.

 “She’s _human_ , that’s my fucking problem!”, North complained angrily.

 “How can you not understand that this is a great chance? That she can help us make the humans understand that we can live together in peace and harmony!”

 “Even if she can, why do you let her influence our cause so much? Why do you let her always be at your side? She’ll never understand what it’s like being oppressed.” Markus didn’t answer.

 “Why her, Markus, why _her_?!”

 “Because I love her!”, Markus shouted loudly. “Okay?! I fucking love her!” Silence.

 “So that’s why. I understand”, North answered through clenched teeth. I heard her coming towards me and took a few steps away where I pressed myself against the wall. She rushed by without noticing me.

 I hid in the shadows with my heart pounding intensively. My knees became weak and I slid down the wall, not knowing how to deal with this information.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again I want to thank everyone who left Kudos and/or a nice comment so far, this really builds me up and keeps me going! <3

“This is suicide”, North objected. “We’ll all be killed! Please, Markus… It’s not too late to change your mind.” We were walking down the escalator to the begin of our next mission.

 “You don’t understand”, Josh replied. “We’re finally gonna show them who we really are. This place will go down in history!”

 “We’ll be killed on the spot!”

 “That’s a risk I’m prepared to take if it means freedom for our people!”

 “They won’t shoot me if I show them I’m human”, I noted.

 “Oh yeah, I forgot. Lucky you”, North snapped at me.

 “And if they know there is a human with you they can’t be sure how many more might be in the crowd”, I continued patiently. I exchanged a glance with Markus who was standing on the other side of the group. I tried to maintain some space between us until I’d have figured out how to deal with his feelings.

 “They’ll understand”, Markus, who had been silent the whole time, concluded. “We’ll make them understand. This is the only way.” He went onto the store alley. We followed him, Josh and I determinedly, North more hesitantly. I paid attention to guards or people who could become attentive towards us while Markus walked around and freed the androids, his hand turning shining white every time he touched an android. There was already a small crowd walking behind us when we moved outside and Markus ordered an android to block the road. Then we opened a manhole cover and helped the rest of the Jericho crew out.

 “Let’s go”, I said. Together we marched down the street, Markus in the front and North, Josh and me directly behind him. I watched fascinatedly how Markus soon freed other androids just by pointing in their direction, then by looking, and in the end they just joined our march when they saw us. It was a magnificent feeling, walking ahead of a gigantic group of peaceful, spontaneously gathering androids that grew with ever metre we marched. People stared at us from the sidewalks and from windows above, and I could see a huge amount of them filming as well. That was good.

 A police officer had the guts to step in our way. “Disperse!”, he shouted, a gun pointed at us. “DISPERSE IMMEDIATELY! THAT’S AN ORDER!” Markus just kept walking.

 “Jesus fuckin’ Christ”, the officer said and hastily moved out of our way when we approached him. I heard him call for reinforcements over his radio unit.

 “WE ARE ALIVE!”, the androids around me started shouting. “WE ARE ALIVE!”

 “FREEDOM! FREEDOM! FREEDOM!”

 “SET US FREE! SET US FREE!”

 “NO MORE SLAVERY!”

 “LIBERTY FOR ANDROIDS!”

 “EQUAL RIGHTS! EQUAL RIGHTS!”

 We halted abruptly when police awaited us at a crossroad. Armoured vehicles stopped to our right, and even a helicopter was flying above us. Dozens of armoured riot units swarmed out of the vehicles and assembled before us.

 “We came here to demonstrate peacefully”, Markus began, “and tell humans that we are living beings. All we want is to live free.”

 “This is an illegal gathering”, an officer answered through a megaphone. “Disperse immediately or we will open fire.”

 “We’re not looking for confrontation. We’ve done no harm, and we have no intention of doing any. But know that we are not going anywhere until we have secured our freedom.”

 “I repeat: this is an illegal gathering. If you do not disperse immediately, we will shoot.”

 “Markus, they’re gonna kill us”, North beseeched. “We have to attack! There’s more of us, we can take them!”

 “If we attack, we’ll start a war. We have to show them we’re not violent. We should just stand our ground, even if it means dying here”, Josh replied. At this moment, one of the shield units kneeled down and the man behind him pointed his rifle at us.

 “This is your last chance! Disperse immediately, or you will all be killed!”

 “We have to show them we won’t back down”, Markus insisted towards us. “We stay right here”, he shouted towards the riot units. As a response, they opened fire. Several androids around us fell.

 “DISPERSE! THIS IS YOUR LAST CHANCE!”

 “I wonder how many last chances he’s gonna give us”, I muttered.

 “We have to make a statement. We have to stay put, no matter what”, Josh urged.

 “We’re not moving.” They opened fire again. One bullet stroke Markus’s arm. Blue blood spattered around.

 “Markus! What are you doing? They’re gonna kill us all”, North plead. Markus looked from her over to me and started to make a step forward.

 “No, wait”, I said. “Let me talk to them.” With raised hands I walked forward.

 “Hold your fire! I am human!”, I shouted.

 “Don’t shoot! Hold fire!”, came the order. “Why should we believe you?”

 “I will prove it”, I responded calmly and slowly pulled a knife out of my pocket, hoping they wouldn’t shoot me. I took off my jacket and exposed my left underarm, laid the knife onto my skin and – showing it towards the guards – made a long diagonal cut from the left side of my wrist about halfway down my inner arm to the right side. Then I clenched my fist and held it up for everybody to see while the red blood streamed down my arm.

 “DON’T SHOOT HER, I REPEAT, DO NOT SHOOT HER!”, the officer commanded.

 “I am human!”, I shouted, my fist still held high. “I am free! Free to say what I want, free to go where I want, free to join any group I want. And I chose to fight for freedom. Not for mine, but for those who are suppressed. For those who are alive but live as slaves.” I felt dizzy now, but continued to speak. “These androids are no different to me. They laugh, they cry, they hate, they love. And I have joined them to show that humanity has to make a step towards them. Humanity has to take down their rose-coloured glasses and acknowledge the truth. Humanity has to accept that we are no longer the only intelligent species. And Humanity has to grant them what they are entitled to.” The world around me became grey and I stumbled backwards. “I stand here as an example of a person who fights for equality, and every human with a bit of manners should consider which one of us is on the wrong side.” With that I fell backwards and got barely caught by Markus’s arms.

 “Bandages, we need bandages!”, I heard him shout, but muffled like I had cotton in my ears. I heard the units open fire, saw the androids fall around me in slow motion while Markus picked me up and carried me away. I felt so cold. The next moment an android was wrapping something around my arm. My thoughts were slow and I wondered if we would die and if somebody would shoot me or if I’d die of blood loss. Then everything went black.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one is a rather short chapter to calm down and take a deep breath before shit hits the fan again. Enjoy! :)

I woke up on a soft mat, tugged into a fluffy blanket, feeling totally warm and secure. I savoured the feeling for a few moments longer, then I opened my eyes. I lay on a low crate next to a fire barrel. Markus was sitting to my right side, holding my hand, his head resting in his other hand. He looked up when I moved.

 “Oh, thank whoever you believe in, you’re awake”, he whispered and touched my cheek. “How are you feeling?”

 “Good, I think. Tired.” My voice was rough and cracked. “How long was I asleep?”

 “28 hours and 37 minutes”, he responded instantly.

 I chuckled and tapped my finger against his temple. “You are weird with your robo-brain.”

 He looked a bit upset by my comment, but hid it quickly. “What were you thinking?”, he asked softly while carefully striking the bandage on my left arm.

 “I sent them a message”, I grinned.

 “That was a stupid idea…”, he answered. But I felt he actually admired me for what I’d done.

 “Stupider than jumping through a closed window?”, I asked ironically. He looked up to me and his lips formed a crooked smile.

 “You are insane”, he murmured and tucked me deeper into the blankets.

 “I must be”, I smirked.

 “You should see this”, Markus said after a while and moved the TV so I could see it. He switched through the channels until he had found one that sent something about our march from yesterday.

 “… with what appears to be a human woman arguing for android rights. It seems to be the same woman that went missing three weeks ago. The question arises as to why a human would participate in an android rebellion. The gathering was deescalated by the police and resulted in no human casualties.”

 “They cut away the whole part where they started shooting us!”, I said outraged.

 “Yeah, the official media did. But watch this”, he gave me a handheld device that showed a video, probably taken from a window at the crossroad where we had met the police forces. I had to admit it looked impressive. I saw myself standing there, between the crowd of deviants and the armoured military units with their guns pointed at me, my fist raised up over my head like a resistance fighter and with the shining red blood running down my arm. Unlike the official video, it didn’t blur out the blood, and neither the shooting and the dead androids. It even showed how they were loaded onto trucks like dead animals and carried away.

 “Disgusting”, I commented.

 “There are dozens of videos like this everywhere on the internet. The public is starting to sympathise with us. They have realised we are no thread and it’s the officials that are acting unjustly! No humans want to join us openly yet, but there are a few who established contact with us and plan to provide us with blue blood and biocomponents.”

 I looked up and smiled. “That makes me so happy, Markus. I’m so proud of you.”

 He sat down next to me again and grabbed my hand. “I couldn’t have done it without you”, he whispered. His odd eyes met mine again, and this time our gazes couldn’t part. His brows relaxed, probably for the first time in weeks. His other hand tenderly caressed my cheek and his thumb stroke over my lips. Then he moved closer and gently kissed me.

 His lips were so warm and soft and just felt perfect on mine. My heart beat fast like it could explode any second and I couldn’t suppress the grin that was forming on my face. I pulled out my hand from under the blanket and laid it onto his neck, keeping him close to me. Under his skin projection I could feel the grooves in his surface, but this time it neither bothered nor disturbed me.

 Too soon he moved away from me again and smiled his twisted smile at me while he stood up. “I need to tell the others you’re awake. They are worried and want to express their esteem for your action.”

 I grimaced. “Can’t that wait a bit? I don’t want to talk to them now…” I sat up. “I just want you to stay here with me.”

 He chuckled. “Let’s get this over with. Then you can at least tell them to leave when you’re tired.”

 “Fine”, I sighed. “Let them come in.” I felt like a queen on her deathbed, how I waved towards the door so Markus would open it, and then with all the androids coming in and praising me like I was a martyr. Even North came in when all the others had finally left. She stood in the doorway for a while, struggling with herself, then she bit her lip and came towards my provisory bed.

 “I never thought I’d ever respect a human…”, she let out. I raised an eyebrow in surprise. That was probably the nicest thing I’d ever hear from North.

 “Thank you”, I answered. North nodded briefly and hurried out of the room. Markus came back in and closed the door behind him.

 “Congratulations, you’re done”, he smiled.

 “Will you stay here with me?”, I asked sleepily.

 “Okay,” he answered quietly. He signalled me to move over and lay down beside me. After a bit of awkward arranging I rested my head on his chest, his arm around my shoulders. I closed my eyes and listened to the irritating sounds inside his body. His chest didn’t heave, and instead of a regular heartbeat there was something more like a soft flow where a human heart would be, accompanied by some barely audible buzzing sounds. Still his body eradiated warmth, a little less than a human body would, but this warmth lulled me into sleep.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A bit longer chapter for today, we're getting closer to the end and I'm getting closer to my exams D: Don't know when I will be able to upload the next chapter, but I'll do my best!

“We need a plan”, Josh exhorted the next day when we held a meeting in the ship’s control cabin. “We’re short on blue blood and biocomponents now that we have so many new androids with us. Our wounded are shutting down and there’s nothing we can do until our human contacts provide us with what we need. And who knows when that will happen?”

 “Humans are conducting raids in all the bid cities, and they’re taking androids to camps to destroy them! Do you really think we’ll ever get help by humans?”, North countered.

 “It’s all our fault”, Josh said crestfallen. “None of this would have happened if we’d just stayed quiet!”

 “You would’ve all shut down sooner or later if you’d just stayed here in the dark”, I reminded them.

 “All we did was show them who we really are”, Markus explained. “I don’t want war. But I’d rather die free than live as a slave.”

 “What’s the point of being free if no one is left alive?”

 “Humans enslaved us! I’ll never regret standing up to that.”

 “This is getting us nowhere”, Josh proclaimed.

 “He’s right”, North cut in. “All that matters now is what we do next.” We looked at Markus.

 “Think carefully before you take some action”, I warned him. He shot a short glance over to me before he spoke.

 “Dialogue. It’s the only way. I will go alone, try to talk to them one last time.”

 “Don’t do this, Markus. They’ll kill you!”, I tried to persuade him.

 “Maybe”, he answered. “But Leah, I have to try. If I don’t come back, lay low as long as you can.”

 “Let me at least come with you!”

 “You are our last joker. We cantc risk losing you to the humans”, North observed. Josh nodded.

 “They need to realise how much they’re hurting us”, he said to Markus before he left the room. "Find the right words, and they’ll listen.” North muttered in agreement and followed him.

 Markus leaned heavily against the control board. “Is this what we dreamed of?”, he asked tiredly.

 “They can’t stop what we’ve started”, I assured him. “Since we’ve been here you’ve given them hope. You’ve given me hope. Whatever happens tomorrow, I want you to know that I… I’m glad I met you.” He came closer, took my hands and leaned his forehead against mine.

 “I love you”, he whispered.

 “I know”, I chuckled. He grabbed my chin and moved it upwards so that I had to look into his eyes. Then he kissed me long and passionately.

 “I love you, too”, I answered quietly. He gave me a sad smile.

 “Will you leave me alone for a bit?”

 I nodded and left the room.

 “Look after yourself”, I said in the doorway. “I don’t wanna lose you.”

 I didn’t feel like joining the others, so I sat down in an empty side room and buried my face into my hands. I’d never thought I’d fell in love with an android one day, and now that I had, I was destined to lose him again just after we’d confessed our love to each other.

 “Are you the human that’s with Markus?”, a soft, but determined voice asked. I looked up in surprise. A young woman had entered the room. Her short hair left her temple visible, but there was no LED to see. Still, with her pretty symmetrical face I assumed she was an android.

“I’m with a little girl and another android”, she began. “There’s a bus leaving for the border, and we need passports.”

 “No, Detroit’s under curfew”, I objected. “There’re soldiers everywhere and they’re rounding up all the androids and sending them to camps. Maybe you should stay here a while.”

 The android seemed to lose all hope. “Maybe you’re right”, she admitted. “We might be safer here until things calm down.”

 “We have a somebody who used to work in the State Department. He has electronic passports he can easily modify. I’ll have him get them to you”, I offered. She nodded.

 “Thank you.”

 I held her back when she wanted to leave the room.

 “You said you’re with a little girl, right? You’re the first android I meet except Markus who has a bond to a human. What brought you together?”

 “She needs me”, she answered. “And I need her. It’s as simple as that.” With that she left me thinking in the dark.

△△△

Of all people it had to be North who got me out of the room when they came. They opened fire without warning and didn’t even stop at the few children. We ran through the dark and narrow corridors until we bumped into Markus and another android.

 “They’re coming from all sides! Our people are trapped in the hold, they’re gonna be slaughtered!”, she exclaimed. Markus set two fingers onto his temple and concentrated for a moment.

 “Where’s Josh?”, he asked when he opened his eyes again.

 “I don’t know, we got separated before I got Leah out.” We looked at each another in panic for a second.

 “We have to blow up Jericho”, Markus decided. “If the ship goes down, they’ll evacuate and our people can escape!”

 “You’ll never make it!”, I said. “The explosives are all the way down in the hold, there are soldiers everywhere!”

 “She’s right”, the other android said. “They know who you are. They’ll do anything to get you!”

 “Go and help the others”, Markus ordered. “I’ll join you later.”

 “Markus!”

 “I won’t be long!” And he ran off.

 “Come on”, North hurried me and the other android down the hallway. We had to take a great detour to avoid soldiers and his in a side room for some minutes.

 “Wait, I know you”, I accused the android between two heavy breaths. “You were with the old guy at my apartment.”

 “You were there? I knew someone had recently been there!” He held out his hand towards me. “My name is Connor. I’m the android sent by CyberLife. Well, not anymore. I’m with you now.”

 “Old habits die hard, huh? Well, Markus and I were hiding in the basement below the stairs”, I explained.

 “I see”, Connor nodded.

 “They are gone, I think the way’s clear”, North said at the door. We went outside again. I looked behind and saw a familiar silhouette approaching us.

 “Markus”, I called out relieved.

 “Bomb’s gonna explode any second. We gotta get out of here!” Together we rushed down the corridors, avoiding obstacles on the way that hadn’t been used for years. We stopped at a hole in the wall and let North and Connor jump through it.

 “I’m not good at swimming, Markus”, I confessed with a little bit of panic. He took my hand and squeezed it slightly.

 “Don’t let go”, he commanded, and without a warning, he jumped and pulled me with him. The surface hit us hard, and my clothes soaked with the cold water and pulled me deep down into the river.

△△△

“I want you to get to know someone”, Markus told me when we entered the front yard of a gigantic mansion. A young family had provided us with dry clothes after they recognised me from the videos, and had also offered shelter for the night, but Markus had other plans.

 “Alarm deactivated. Welcome home, Markus”, an electronical voice said when the door opened.

 “That’s surprisingly friendly”, I noted.

 “Carl is a good man”, Markus explained. I stood frozen in the doorway when I identified the style of a huge painting that leant against the opposite wall.

 “Your former master is Carl _Manfred_?”, I aspirated amazed.

 “You know him?”

 “Of course I know him! I fucking admire him!” I went inside and looked around with widened eyes. His paintings were hanging and leaning everywhere.

 “He paints so much in blue… That’s sad”, I said quietly. Markus frowned at me, but said nothing. I followed him into the living room through the door ahead. He looked around absentmindedly and seemed to have forgotten me completely. He touched the little figures on the chess board in front of the window, let his fingers wander over the books in the shelf on the wall and hesitated before the next door. When he pushed it open, I smelled the sharp, but sweet scent of paint and turpentine before I entered the room as well and became aware of the glory of my idol’s gallery.

 “This one is different”, I observed towards a picture next to the door. Markus was staring at it.

 “I painted it the day I became deviant”, he stated in a numb tone. Then he looked up, like he’d just woken up and remembered where he was.

 “I need to talk to him”, he declared. “Feel free to look around, just don’t change anything.”

 I walked around in the room, looked at the paintings, glimpsed behind the curtain that was hanging in front of it and carefully stroke over the brushes that were collected cleanly in a little jar. I stocked when I saw the box of paints lying on a shelf. It was the same box that Markus had dropped when we’d crashed into each other at Bellini Paints’. The same box he had picked up again minutes later when the protesters had pushed him around and I’d stepped between them. It felt like this was ages ago. How much had I changed in only a couple of weeks!

 Suddenly I felt the urge to go and see Markus. To see if this wasn’t just a dream but real. I walked up into the hall, up the stairs and to the left where a door stood open.

 “Carl, they’re killing my people… I don’t want to answer violence with violence, but tell me, what choice do they give?”, I heard Markus from inside. The despair in his voice nearly brought tears to my eyes. I’d never thought about how much it had to hurt _him_ seeing all his people being slaughtered like this. I moved a bit closer and peeked inside the room.

 “Being alive is making choices”, the deep voice of Carl Manfred answered calmly “between love and hate, between holding out your hand or closing it as a fist. I don’t have any easy answers, Markus. You have to accept the world as it is, or fight to change it.” He looked at him for a long time, then suddenly over to me.

 “I see you’ve brought a guest with you”, he said with a friendly smile. Markus turned around with a grim face, but relaxed as soon as he recognised me.

 “Carl, this is Leah.” He guided me to the bed.

 “Delighted to meet you, Mr. Manfred”, I said and shook hands with him. “I’m a great admirer of your art.”

 “Thank you. Call me Carl, please. I saw you in the news. That was quite a brave action you did there.” Markus gazed at me proudly. Carl looked at us both and seemed to understand.

 “Why don’t you stay the night in the guest room?”, he suggested. “I don’t know about androids, but I know humans value a warm and soft bed.” He turned to Markus again.

 “You’re my son, Markus. Our blood isn’t the same colour, but I know part of me is in you. When the world falls into darkness, some men have the courage to lead it out. You’re one of those men. Face the abyss, but don’t let it consume you.” Markus sat with him for a little while longer, then he laid a hand on my back and directed me to the guest room.

 “I never knew Carl was such a good person”, I said when he closed the door behind us. I moved over to the bed and took off my shoes and my pullover. Markus sat down beside me.

 “He is a great man”, he agreed while he stroked a strand of hair behind my ear. I looked into his eyes, trying to figure out what he was thinking. He took off his shirt and moved closer to me.

 “What are you doing?”, I whispered with a heavily pounding heart.

 “I want to make you happy”, he responded quietly.

 “I _am_ happy with you, Markus.”

 “You don’t understand”, he murmured and kissed my neck and my shoulders. Then he softly pushed me onto the bed and leaned over me.

 “Do you even have a… I mean, can you even… It’s not like you were design to do it”, I said awkwardly.

 “No”, he answered, not without a little bitterness in his voice. “But I know how to please you.” And he continued kissing and caressing my body with his hands while I stroke and kissed him back. His skin was a little too smooth, his body warmth a little too regular and I could still feel the grooves all over his body, but still it was perfect as we loved each other in a way no human and android had ever done before us.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I just had to do the Connor thing, for the meme^^


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First exam over and now I found time to write the next chapter. Let me know if you like it :)

We spent the day at Carl’s house after we almost ran into a patrol that rounded up androids when we tried to leave the house. Markus was walking around restlessly while I tried to distract myself with Carl’s exquisite book collection. From time to time I walked over to the window that faced the street and watched heavily armed militaries leading groups of androids along the road, or trucks that were crammed with them. It hurt me, but even worse was the expression on Markus’s face, a mix of pain and anger, and I feared that by the end of the day he would either break or go berserk. The situation was even worse than I had thought.

 Around midday they started ringing at the doors and asking for androids that hadn’t been returned yet. Markus and I had to watch how they shot the neighbour’s android after she tried to escape when they dragged her out of the house. It cost me all my will and conviction to persuade Markus not to run out and attack the militaries.

 They also knocked at Carl’s door. I went over, trying to hide my face and spoke through the door.

 “Yes?”

 “I am advised to collect any androids that haven’t been conveyed to the authorities yet. Are there any left in your house?”

 “No. The only android Mr. Manfred had was destroyed weeks ago.”

 “May I come in?”

 “Mr. Manfred isn’t feeling well and doesn’t want to see anybody.”

 “I’m not here for Mr. Manfred. I’m here for possibly hidden androids.”

 “Sir, _I_ am advised to let nobody in. If you wish, I can ask Mr. Manfred to sign something to confirm that he doesn’t have any androids left. Or do you not trust the word of _Carl Manfred_?”

 The officer hesitated for a moment. “Fine, I guess Mr. Manfred wouldn’t act against the law…”

 “Good. Now I need to ask you to leave before he wakes up. He needs the rest.” With that I went off and hoped the man would go.

 “We really need to go”, Markus urged me when I returned to the living room.

 “Not before it’s dark. It’s too dangerous. We won’t even make it to the end of the street.”

 So we waited. Time didn’t seem to pass while Markus kept walking back and forth in the room. When I couldn’t take it anymore I walked upstairs into the guest room and dozed a bit. Later I sat to Carl and had a lively conversation about art with him. Markus came up when it dawned.

 “It’s time.” I nodded and got up, said goodbye to Carl and left Markus alone with him. I waited downstairs for him. His face was grim and determined when he eventually walked down to me.

 “Let’s go.” There wasn’t more to say. We hid in the shadows and avoided patrols and security drones as well as lighted streets. Once we would’ve been caught, had not a young man called us into his house in the last moment. He left the light out and guided us through his backyard onto a different street.

 It was very late in the evening when we finally reached an abandoned desecrated church full of Jericho survivors.

 “How did they know where to go?”, I asked confused. Markus just tipped against his temple. Robo-brain, of course.

 “Markus!”, North exclaimed when we walked into the light. Most androids jumped up and gathered around us, led by North and Josh.

 “Were have you been?”, Josh asked upset.

 “We had to go somewhere important for me”, Markus explained. We managed to convince the others that everything was alright and sat down together to discuss our situation.

 “How many of us have survived the attack?”, Markus asked.

 “A few hundred?”, North answered, looking around. “Maybe more if you count those hiding all over the city. We led as many as we could here.”

 “They say they don’t wanna take any risks with the deviants, so they’re rounding our people up and taking them to the camps… for extermination.”

 “It’s even worse than we thought”, I agreed. We sat in grim silence.

 “In a few hours, we’re gonna be the only ones left”, Markus concluded.

 “There’s also this Connor guy”, North said after a while and nodded over to a dark corner. “You should talk to him.”

 Markus got up and walked over to him. Connor looked remorseful and full of self-reproach as they talked. In the end, Markus laid a hand on his shoulder and said something that seemed to cheer him up a little. Then he stepped up to the place where the altar must’ve stood. The crowd fell silent immediately.

 “Humans have decided to exterminate us. Our people are packed in camps right now, being destroyed. Time has come to make a choice, one that very well may determine the future of our people.

 I know you’re all angry. So am I. And I know you wanna fight back. But I assure you violence is not the answer here. Not all humans are like this.” He invited me to stand at his side and laid an arm around my waist. “And there are others who are willing to help us, too. Others who see the injustice. Who are willing to provide us with what we need. The others just haven’t opened their eyes yet. We are gonna tell them peacefully that we want justice. If there’s any humanity in them, they will listen. And if not, others will take our place and continue this fight. Are you ready to follow me?”

 The androids began to cheer and to call out Markus name in resonance. He turned to me and softly stroked my cheek with a smile on his lips.

 “We’re gonna show them that we can live together”, he whispered.

△△△

I was probably the only one freezing in the crowd that marched towards the camp at Hart Plaza. Helicopters and security drones were hovering above us and the entrance to the camps was entrenched behind military vehicles, crates and walls of sandbags.

 “Here we are”, Markus said. “The moment of truth.”

 “Surrender immediately or we will open fire!”, they shouted at us. “Stand by!”

 We took a few more steps forward before we halted. I looked over to our left where dozens of journalists were filming and taking pictures. I advised Markus of them.

 “We don’t want confrontation!”, Markus shouted. “We are protesting peacefully.”

 “I repeat: surrender now or we will open fire!”

 “I have heard this before”, I muttered. Suddenly one of the tanks drove out of line and stopped behind us.

 “There’s no turning back now”, Markus stated. He raised his voice again. “We are here to demand the immediate liberation of all androids detained in camps across the country. We are not leaving until our people are free.” With that we marched forward.

 “FIRE!” Androids around us fell.

 “You better remove that bandage and show them your wound before they shoot you as well”, Markus advised me. I rolled up my left sleeve and did as he told me while they fired another salvo. Markus stopped again, and after a moment he sat down onto the floor. We followed him in unison.

 “Are you gonna open fire on unarmed protestors?”, Markus asked.

 It took a long time until the answer finally came. “All teams hold your fire.” I took a deep relieved breath. Markus grabbed my hand and squeezed it slightly.

△△△

An hour later we had built up a giant barricade around us, made out of benches, signs and cars that had been parked along the road, and other stuff that we could find.

 “Alright, that should do it”, Markus said finally.

 “I know it was not an easy decision to make”, Josh began thoughtfully, “but I’m sure we’re doing the right thing.”

 “I agree”, I added. We climbed back into the barricade and looked around.

 “We should go around and support the people. Strengthen the morale and so on”, I suggested. Markus nodded and knelt down beside a fallen android.

 “The humans have no pity for those who are different”, an android next to him said.

 “Not all humans are like this”, Markus assured him. “You will see. When we have achieved our goal, all humans will treat us like Leah does.” The android looked at me sceptically, but seemed a bit more confident after hearing Markus’s optimism.

 “Are you alright?”, he asked another one that was sitting behind a trashcan, his arms wrapped around his knees.

 “They shot into the crowd”, the android responded absent-mindedly. “Many of us were killed. It could’ve been me… I’m scared, I… I don’t wanna shut down.”

 “It’s okay to be scared”, Markus answered softly. “I’m scared, too. Scared that I could die, scared that those I love could die. But I can’t stand by while they kill our people. You understand that, right?”

 “Maybe we should have never asked for freedom”, the android said quietly. “None of this would have happened if we’d stayed silent.”

 “It’s never wrong to fight for what you deserve”, I tried to help and laid a hand onto his shoulder. “Just stay strong.” We got up and walked further.

 “They are losing their hope”, Markus said helplessly. “But we can’t back down now!”

 “Then do something to raise their faith again! Show them what they are fighting for. I have an idea. Do we still have those digital graffiti devices?” Markus raised his shoulders. “I’ll go search for some”, I told him.

 A few minutes later I had found more than I hoped for. With the help of two other androids I raised a gigantic banner towards the side facing the journalists.

 “Let’s show them why we are here”, I said and activated the hologram. _EQUAL RIGHTS FOR ANROIDS_ , it read. When I turned around I saw Markus had raised a flag with our sign towards the militaries and the camp. We met again in the middle of our barricaded area.

 “I lost contact to the other androids in the camp”, he notified me grimly. “There’s no way out. They’re going to kill us. The only hope I have left is that we don’t die for nothing.” I moved closer to him and hugged him tightly, slipping my arms under his long coat and burying my face in the cloth of his shirt. He laid his arms around me and his head on top of mine.

 “You’re the hope of your people”, I reassured him. “We all trust you. No matter what happens now, we’re making history.” I nodded over to the journalists. “They are recording everything. The authorities won’t come far without questions anymore.”

 “Markus!”, North called from the barricade. “Markus, come look!” I took a step away from him, but he grabbed my hand and walked hand in hand with me towards the military side where we looked over the edge. A man was approaching us.

 “Markus! I’ve come to talk to you, Markus! Come on, you have my word. They won’t try anything.”

 “Don’t go”, North said instantly. “It’s a trap. They wanna get you out in the open. Don’t go.”

 “I’m unarmed, Markus. I just wanna talk”, the man said again.

 “I need to hear what he has to say”, Markus decided.

 “I’ll come with you. They won’t shoot when I stay close to you, and our arguments will be stronger if there’s also a human supporting you”, I determined. Markus knew he couldn’t argue with that, and so we walked outside together. We halted about two metres away from him.

 “Hello Markus. My name is agent Perkins. I wanna make a suggestion to you. In a few minutes, the troops will be ordered to charge. None of you will survive. It will all be over.” He fell silent for a moment to let his words sink in. “But you can avoid that, Markus.”

 “What do you mean?”

 “Surrender. Surrender and I give you my word your life will be spared. They’ll be detained, but none of you will be destroyed.”

 “What happened to the other androids demonstrating in the camps?”, Markus demanded to know.

 “Unfortunately, there were no journalists around to help save them. You’re it. You’re the last remaining deviants.” I felt anger rise in me, and I would probably jumped forward and punched Perkins in his huge nose, but Markus slightly held my arm to keep me back. Perkins’s gaze shifted to me for the first time.

 “And you are the little human who’s with them, huh? Unluckily, that won’t help you anymore. I’ll make sure you’ll be charged with treason if you continue this stupidity.”

 “Fighting inhuman behaviour is no treason to the human species”, I answered coldly and felt how Markus rose with pride of me. Perkins gave me a disgusted look and shifted his attention towards Markus again.

 “Sometimes, in a fight a bullet misses its target and strikes someone else. Someone who wasn’t supposed to be shot. Unfortunate, but events like this happen. You wouldn’t want that, would you?

 Her life’s in your hands, Markus. Just say the word and she’ll be spared.”

 Markus looked at me for a long time. _Don’t do it, Markus. Don’t betray everything you have fought for so far,_ I thought and hoped Markus could read my expression.

 “I’d rather die here than betray my people.”

 “Well… you just signed your own death warrant”, Perkins concluded and went back towards the camp.

 “Perkins!”, I called him. He turned around again. “I’ll bleed for what’s right! We will all bleed for what’s right!” And again I pulled out the knife, rolled up my sleeve and made another cut parallel to the first one, lighter this time, for I couldn’t afford too much blood loss. Again I raised my fist into the air, and again the red blood streamed down my arm and coloured the snow below me red.

 Markus took the knife out of my hand, rolled up his right sleeve and made a similar cut on his forearm. Then he raised his arm as well and grabbed my hand. We stood like this for a moment and faced Perkins.

 “That’s right”, he hissed. “You will all bleed.”

 We let our arms down and marched back to the barricade hand in hand while our blood mixed where we touched and left a trail of red and blue in the snow. Out of the corner of my eye I saw the excitement in the journalists’ movements and a shiver ran down my spine when I realised the high symbolism of this act.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This will be the last chapter for now (maybe there will be a little epilogue someday). Wow, I didn't think we'd get through this so quickly^^
> 
> I want to thank everyone who read this story, and everyone who left kudos or a comment! A special thanks goes to Noe_991 and Nyx_Shepard who commented under almost every chapter and really kept my mood up, and to Caythleen who gave me good constructive criticism.
> 
> I hope you all like this story (you probably do if you have made it to this point), and I apologise that the end of this chapter is so terribly corny xD

North and Josh patched up our wounds. The cuts weren’t too deep, so a simple bandage was sufficient. Markus was sitting on a box in the middle of the barricade. He stood up when North was done.

 “The humans are about to launch an attack. And we will show them that we are not afraid. If we must die today, then we will die free.”

 That moment a grenade was launched into our middle and the explosion thrust us away. The world around me became black for a moment. When I regained consciousness, I heard little but a ringing noise in my ear. Androids were running around in panic and I could see soldiers enter the barricade on the other side. Where was Markus?

 “Markus!”, I shouted, barely hearing my own voice. I tried to stand up and struggled as the world began to spin around me. I fell to my knees again, trying to concentrate on finding my balance again so I could hide from the soldiers that were shooting everything that moved. Just when I was about to stand up again, a body flew against me and pushed me away. Another grenade exploded near to where I had sat a moment before. I looked up and found the android that we had talked to earlier next to his dead friend, dragging me away from the trouble.

  _You can’t die here now_ , I read from his lips, now unable to hear anything else than the unpleasant beeping sound after the second grenade had exploded so close to me. With his help I managed to stand up and hurry behind a trashcan. I hid there until my hearing slowly came back, then I dared to shot a glance out of my cover. Many androids lay around dead, others were hiding on the far side from the camp, others still fighting unarmed against the soldiers. I couldn’t make out Markus in the crowd and felt panic rising in me. What if he was dead? Lying somewhere behind a crate where I couldn’t see him? Or wounded and waiting for a painful death, alone in the cold?

 I looked around and decided to search him. Rushing from cover to cover I slowly moved towards the other end of the barricade. There I saw him, fighting against two soldiers that had appeared from behind. He knocked one out and threatened the other to hold up his hands and move away.

 “Markus!”, I called him and hurried to his side. He laid an arm around me and quickly kissed my forehead, then he dragged me with him as he and a few other androids ran to try and leave the area. We stopped where a bus blocked our way and turned around.

 They came in a semicircle around us, making sure nobody could escape in any way, their guns aimed at us. I grabbed Markus’s hand, and we held onto each other where our blood had mixed only minutes ago. Tears came to my eyes as I looked at the soldiers that seemed so much more inhuman in their armour than the androids around me, and realised it was over.

 Suddenly, out of the blue and old gospel song that I had learned in school came to my mind. I pressed Markus’s hand, then let go and made a step forward. The soldiers tensed up, but didn’t shoot.

 “Hold on just a little while longer”, I began quietly, my voice a bit rough and untrained. “Hold on just a little while longer.” I tried to put all my feelings and emotions into my voice, my fear and pain, my anger and frustration that I had felt over the last weeks, my determination that I was doing the right thing, but also my love for Markus and my hope for a better future for all of us. “Hold on just a little while longer. Everything will be alright.” I became more confident now and raised my voice a little. “Everything will be alright.”

 “Fight on just a little while longer”, Markus joined in with me. I looked into his eyes as he stepped next to me and took my hand again. “Fight on just a little while longer.”

 “Pray on just a little while longer.” One android after another began as well. “Everything will be alright.”

 Markus and I turned towards each other. He still held my hand, and with the other he was now striking a wisp of hair behind my ear like he had done some many times already.

 “Everything will be alright.”

 He and I fell silent as all the others around us had raised their voices.

 “Sing on just a little while longer.”

 I looked into his blue and green eyes and let my gaze wander over his beautiful face, caressing his cheek with my hand.

 “Sing on just a little while longer.”

 “Remove your skin”, I whispered to him. “Let them see I love you as you are.” He closed his eyes and did as I told him.

 “Sing on just a little while longer.”

 As the projection vanished I laid my hand into his neck and softly pulled him down to me. He wrapped his arm around my waist and embraced me tightly. I closed my eyes.

 “Everything will be alright.”

 Then we kissed. I tried to put all the love I felt for him into this one touch of our lips, tried to show him how my heart nearly exploded, how I could laugh and cry at the same time, how I just wished time would stop and everything would be like this exact moment of our kiss forever. And I felt he tried to show the same affection, the same feeling, the same wishes.

 “Everything will be alright.”

 We slowly moved away from each other and I opened my eyes again. He kept eye contact and at this moment I felt the bond that had shaped between us stronger than ever.

 “Everything will be alright.”

 I looked around when the others fell silent. The soldiers had let their guns down and were staring at us irresolutely. Then, like from a silent commando, they all backed away and left our little group standing there between all the dead androids.


End file.
